續高僧傳 30.15

30.15

釋慧明。不知何人。貌儀象胡。故世以胡明為目。然其利口奇辯鋒涌難加。摛體風雲銘目時事。吐言驚世聞皆諷之。後乃聽採經論。傍尋書史。捃掇大旨不存文句。陳文御世多營齋福。民百風從其例遂廣。眾以明騁衒脣吻機變不思。諸有唱導莫不推指。明亦自顧才力有餘。隨聞即舉。牽引古今包括大致。能使聽者欣欣恐其休也。宣帝在位大建五年。將事北征觀兵河上。已遣大都督程文季等。領軍淮浦與齊對陣。雄氣相傾。帝甚憂及。乃於太極殿命龜卜之。試卦腹文颯然長裂。君臣失色為不祥也。即請百僧齋。時一會臨中。獊猝未測所由。及行香訖乃陳卜意。明抗聲敘致又述緣曰。卜征龜破。可謂千里路通。既其文季前鋒豈不一期程捷。時以為浮飾也。至四月中。次大小峴與齊大戰。俘虜援兵二十餘萬。軍次譙合。呂梁彭越前無橫陣。故下勅云。今歲出師薄伐邊服。所獲梁土。則江淮二百許城。東西五千餘里。然龜腹長文號千里也。遠驗明言宛同符契。故明承此勢。為業復隆。偏意宗猷。達悟登白者。其量弘矣。不測其終。

Śramaṇa Huiming: It is unknown who he was. His appearance resembled that of a Westerner (Hu), so the world referred to him as 'Hu Ming.' Yet his sharp tongue and extraordinary eloquence surged like a spearpoint that none could withstand. He composed texts billowing like wind and clouds, commemorating contemporary affairs. When he uttered words, he startled the world, and all who heard him recited them. Later, he listened to and gathered sūtras and treatises, while also delving into the histories and books, plucking their main ideas without lingering on the phrasing. When Emperor Wen of the Chen reigned, he sponsored numerous fasting-feasts to cultivate merit, and the common people followed this custom like the wind, so that the practice grew widespread. The multitude regarded Ming's display of eloquence and quick-witted resourcefulness as beyond contemplation, and for all who served as guiding expositors (chàngdǎo), none failed to defer to him. Ming himself also recognized that his talents were more than sufficient; he could expound on whatever he heard, drawing from antiquity and the present and encompassing the overall purport, so that he could make the listeners rejoice and dread that he might stop.

In the fifth year of the Dajian era during the reign of Emperor Xuan [573 CE], an expedition was about to be launched northward to display military might along the Yellow River. The Commander-in-Chief Cheng Wenji and others had already been dispatched to lead troops to the mouth of the Huai River and face the Qi forces in battle formation. The heroic spirits on both sides vied with each other, and the Emperor was deeply anxious about it. Thereupon, in the Taiji Hall, he commanded that divination be made by tortoise shell. When tested, the line on the plastron suddenly cracked in a long rift. The sovereign and his ministers turned pale, taking it as an ill omen. They immediately invited a hundred monks to a fasting-feast. When the assembly had gathered for noon, they were in confusion, not guessing what had occasioned it. When the circumambulation of incense was finished, the Emperor presented the intention of the divination. Ming raised his voice, stated the purport, and recounted the circumstances, saying: 'The divination regarding the expedition yielded a broken tortoise shell: this may be called opening a road of a thousand li. And since Wenji is at the vanguard, does this not mean a swift victory according to schedule (chéng)?' At the time, they thought this was merely superficial ornamentation.

By the fourth month, at the Greater and Lesser Xian, a major battle was fought with the Qi, and more than two hundred thousand reinforcement troops were captured. The army advanced to Qiao and He; before Lülü and Pengyue, there were no battle lines left to block them. Therefore an imperial edict was issued, stating: 'This year our troops went forth to make a punitive expedition on the frontier dependencies. What has been secured of the Liang territory comprises some two hundred cities along the Yangzi and Huai, extending more than five thousand li from east to west. Thus the long rift on the tortoise's belly was indeed called "a thousand li."' In the long run, Ming's words proved to match it completely, like two halves of a tally. Because Ming rode upon this momentum, his enterprise flourished even more. Those who turned their minds exclusively to the lineage of his teachings, attaining understanding and ascending to purity, were vast in number. His end is unknown.